Security Update for Microsoft Office (September 2017) (macOS)

high Nessus Plugin ID 103126

Synopsis

An application installed on the remote macOS or Mac OS X host is affected by multiple vulnerabilities.

Description

The Microsoft Office application installed on the remote macOS or Mac OS X host is missing a security update. It is, therefore, affected by the following vulnerabilities:

- A remote code execution vulnerability exists in Microsoft Office software when the software fails to properly handle objects in memory. An attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability could run arbitrary code in the context of the current user. If the current user is logged on with administrative user rights, an attacker could take control of the affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.
Exploitation of the vulnerability requires that a user open a specially crafted file with an affected version of Microsoft Office software. In an email attack scenario, an attacker could exploit the vulnerability by sending the specially crafted file to the user and convincing the user to open the file. In a web-based attack scenario, an attacker could host a website (or leverage a compromised website that accepts or hosts user-provided content) that contains a specially crafted file designed to exploit the vulnerability. An attacker would have no way to force users to visit the website.
Instead, an attacker would have to convince users to click a link, typically by way of an enticement in an email or instant message, and then convince them to open the specially crafted file. Note that the Preview Pane is not an attack vector for this vulnerability. The security update addresses the vulnerability by correcting how Office handles objects in memory.
(CVE-2017-8567)

- A remote code execution vulnerability exists in Microsoft Office software when it fails to properly handle objects in memory. An attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability could use a specially crafted file to perform actions in the security context of the current user. For example, the file could then take actions on behalf of the logged-on user with the same permissions as the current user. Exploitation of this vulnerability requires that a user open a specially crafted file with an affected version of Microsoft Office software. In an email attack scenario, an attacker could exploit the vulnerability by sending the specially crafted file to the user and convincing the user to open the file. In a web-based attack scenario, an attacker could host a website (or leverage a compromised website that accepts or hosts user-provided content) that contains a specially crafted file that is designed to exploit the vulnerability. However, an attacker would have no way to force the user to visit the website. Instead, an attacker would have to convince the user to click a link, typically by way of an enticement in an email or Instant Messenger message, and then convince the user to open the specially crafted file. The security update addresses the vulnerability by correcting how Microsoft Office handles files in memory.
(CVE-2017-8631, CVE-2017-8632)

- An information disclosure vulnerability exists in the way that the Windows Graphics Device Interface (GDI) handles objects in memory, allowing an attacker to retrieve information from a targeted system. By itself, the information disclosure does not allow arbitrary code execution; however, it could allow arbitrary code to be run if the attacker uses it in combination with another vulnerability. To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker would have to log on to an affected system and run a specially crafted application. Note that where the severity is indicated as Critical in the Affected Products table, the Preview Pane is an attack vector for this vulnerability. The security update addresses the vulnerability by correcting how GDI handles memory addresses. (CVE-2017-8676)

Solution

Microsoft has released a set patches for Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 and Microsoft Office 2016 for Mac.

See Also

http://www.nessus.org/u?b6eeb83f

http://www.nessus.org/u?68489292

http://www.nessus.org/u?b333387a

http://www.nessus.org/u?52db4138

http://www.nessus.org/u?c9e41e2a

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 103126

File Name: macosx_ms17_sep_office.nasl

Version: 1.7

Type: local

Agent: macosx

Published: 9/12/2017

Updated: 11/12/2019

Supported Sensors: Nessus Agent, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 6.7

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 9.3

Temporal Score: 6.9

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2017-8632

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.8

Temporal Score: 6.8

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/a:microsoft:office

Required KB Items: Host/MacOSX/Version

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 9/12/2017

Vulnerability Publication Date: 9/12/2017

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2017-8567, CVE-2017-8631, CVE-2017-8632, CVE-2017-8676

BID: 100719, 100734, 100751, 100755

IAVA: 2017-A-0274

MSFT: MS17-3212225

MSKB: 3212225